Arkansas Blog

Alice Walton pouring money into New York state legislative races

ALICE WALTON: Financing campaign against Democratic legislators in New York.

When you have just about all the money in the world there's no end to the amount of political influence you can buy. See Alice Walton, written up here for joining others in pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into New York State legislative races.

Walton, described as an Arkansas resident, has contributed $450,000 to a $3 million effort to defeat four black and Latino legislators in the New York area.

Their first interest is pushing a tax credit that would push money into private and parochial schools. Sound familiar? Friends of conventional public schools these folks are not — whether in New York or Arkansas.

The article goes on:

The targeted politicians include Bronx Democratic state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who represents the city’s poorest borough and has worked on bills supporting immigration and prison reform; Assembly member Pamela Harris (D-Brooklyn), a proponent of paid family leave and reduced Metrocard fare; Assembly member Phil Ramos (D-Suffolk County), a vocal opponent of charter schools; and Assembly member Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn), who has recently sponsored legislation on reporting standards for sexual assault and child abuse in addition to restoring voting rights for people with felony convictions.

Karen Schaff, executive director of public-financing advocacy org Citizen Action, told the Voice: “The flood of big money into state legislative races has been happening over the last few cycles, especially from the hedge fund and real estate industries. But this scale of involvement from super-PACs in Democratic primary races in less well-off districts is relatively new.”

As we've learned you can buy the Arkansas legislature for much less than $3 million.

By the way: Is Alice Walton really an Arkansas resident, as the article describes, for all legal purposes? Has she moved for voting and tax purposes from no-income-tax Texas back to Republicansas, which, for the time being at least, has a state income tax?